Got to Rank 18..... trouble is that now the game seems to want me to progress no further!!

Going for adventures, I no longer have the same choices of adventures as before... now I have to face Obediant Servants who kill me in a couple of blows before I get a chance to do anything... face crazy scientists who do absurd amounts of damage.......... basically now all the choices are way-way-way hard in that I haven't completed any of the 10-15 I have attempted since reaching Rank 18.

I try hunting instead and face off against Cossacks who are now 5% to be hit!! Undead Hounds who are just crazy-deadly...... again, since reaching Rank 18 I have yet to win a hunt....

And since combat is now going badly and experience isn't gained from passing other skill-tests, my cash flow and item rewards have slowed badly leaving my revenue minute...... so all the Rippertech I want to research is being wasted with failed combinations...... so bugger-all experience is being gained there.....

Anyone else having similar problems??

edit: just tried another hunt (now that my health had regen and my wound status had gone)...... Cursed Nosferatu..... 7% chance to hit the bugger....... killed me in two hits....... plus it reckoned I was hitting with fists, not with the 2 spears I had equipped...... gnnnnnnn....... not sure how I'm gonna level up in the next month at this rate LOL _________________100% Irons!!!!
Savage Explorer of the Tropics

I hit a similar speed bump going through the late teens. However, that's when I discovered cheap, green ingredients sold at the Gypsy camp. I bought a bunch of "Pinch of Salt" for 6 or 7 $, and just burned through a couple of levels doing that.

Another big...HUGE...piece of advice: INVITE FELLOW RIPPERS ON FB! Seriously...look through the "add me" thread on here and add those people. Every player in Rippers can "share" one of their items with their allies, which means that for every player you have on your team, you're essentially getting 1 extra piece of gear. A lot of us are higher level and have some crazy items equipped...for example, some have "Horses", which gives a +8 to Speed. I personally have "The Impaler" shared, which adds +6 Power and +8 Damage...once you have enough speed, then Power and Damage become important so that you can kill whatever you face as quickly as possible.

What's "enough" Speed? Go Hunting, and if any of the monsters have less than a 95% chance to ESCAPE (not "To Hit"...look at the Escape number), you need more speed. Increase your speed until all of the monsters give you a 95% escape chance...that means that they have a 5% to hit YOU. Once you have the 95% escape chance, bump up your other stats - bump up Power until you're reliably killing everything in 1 blow. Then bump up your Courage. That'll keep you playing longer, and doing more stuff.

I'm at level 34, with 70 Speed (modified) right now. This is largely due not only to my heavy investment in Speed for skill increases, but Lodge Upgrades that increase my Team Size, and then getting allies who have shared items with large Speed bonuses.

If I go Hunting, many of the monsters I fight I have a 95% chance to hit, but my Escape chance is usually below that. I thought I had a 5% chance to Critically Fail, but when I was fighting a Cossack, I Critically Failed (losing massive Heart) three times in a row, so I'm not sure how that mechanic works.

When I DO get hit, it is for (on average) about 50% of my health. That means that if I get hit twice, I am either defeated, or else I've got single-digit hit points left. (Total Health appears to be determined by the grand total of Power, Speed, Courage, and Intellect.)

I haven't yet figured out if any of the traits serve to reduce damage suffered from enemy attacks. (I suspect none of them do.) If such a thing existed, that'd be valuable. Each point of damage means 2 minutes of recovery, after all, so progress is slow from this point on. Largely, I have been going on Hunts for the random chance that if I win, I will get a valuable "dropped" item which I can then sell to the Gypsies, then use that money to buy cheap Ingredients that I can then use to make failed Rippertech Experiments for the experience points. I haven't bothered with Adventures for a long time, because that requires me to keep my Intellect up (to get past the skill checks), and if I do that, that means fewer advances I can spend on Power or Speed in order to keep up in the arms race with the Cabal at each successive Rank.

After all, with each Rank you advance, you aren't really getting more powerful, because your opponents get powerful right along with you. All you're doing is redistributing resources and trying to figure out the magic ratio of Speed-to-Power-to-Courage-to-Intellect. (Social Standing is nice, particularly at low Ranks, for those allies who grant income-per-hour, but the "+1 to Courage" or "+2 to Speed" bonuses pale in comparison to bonuses you can get from friends who put even a low-level item into their shared item space.)_________________

Oh yeah, another thing: I've got Horses in my shared items slot, which grants +8 Speed, but it seems that some of the weapon stats got redefined, and it's hard to tell what's the best deal anymore. The Webley used to grant +5 Speed and +1 Damage. Now it's +5 Speed and +5 Damage. It's really hard to figure out the trade-off between Damage and Speed here, because at higher levels, my damage-dealing really can't keep up with the increased health bars of the bad guys. (Even if I max out Speed compared to the bad guy, it seems that he ALWAYS has at least a 5% chance of scoring a Critical Hit to smack me.)

I haven't yet figured out how damage values of individual weapons are worked out. I have a Lodge Upgrade that grants me an extra item I can equip. Rather than spending any spaces on Gear for myself, I have equipped 2 Dueling Blades (Melee items, bonus to Speed and Damage), one Webley (Ranged Weapon), and one Repeating Crossbow (another Ranged Weapon that at the time I purchased it was just BARELY better than a Webley).

When I enter combat, it appears that in the first round, I get to make an attack and deal damage based on what ranged weapons I have equipped. I'm not sure how the exact damage number is determined for each weapon, but the resulting number appears to correspond to "X + weapon's Damage bonus" where "X" is an unknown factor. The Crossbow deals more damage than the Webley, which in turn deals more damage than the Dueling Blades, and both my Dueling Blades deal the same damage as each other in this round and in subsequent rounds.

Regardless of how many weapons I have equipped, if I hit, my Power is added to the damage total, and it appears that the grand total of all Damage bonuses granted by allies is added on top of that.

In subsequent rounds, I attack with Melee Weapons only; the Power and Damage From Allies bonus stays the same. Thus, it appears that damage bonuses from Ranged Weapons are almost negligible in the big scheme of things at higher levels (since it takes several rounds for me to defeat an opponent, and damage caused by the weapons themselves is very small compared to my Power and Damage From Allies).

I've considered experimenting with replacing one of the Ranged Weapons with another Melee Weapon in hopes of getting another attack in, but so far it looks like Ranged Weapons tend to give more generous Speed bonuses. Those Speed bonuses are more critical overall, so the irony is that it MIGHT be a better tactic for me to replace one of my Dueling Blades with a Ranged Weapon that gives me a better Speed or Power bonus. (A Damage bonus would be negligible for my own use, since it would be a flat number that would benefit me only once during the first round.)

Ranged Weapons seem to be very valuable as Shared Items for Friends, though, because the same Damage bonus that only applies in Round 1 for my own use applies in EVERY round for an ally.

(The main difference in a bonus to Power or a bonus to Damage, near as I can tell, is that a bonus to Power is a bonus to your total attributes - so it also equates into a bonus to your total Health points.)

Anyway, that's the best I can figure it out so far from limited observation and speculation._________________

I hit the wall at level 18 as well and my speed is buffed beyond anything I thought sane and normal at this point in the game. Right now I'm level 20 and my stats are:

Power 40
Courage 30
Intellect 25
Speed 38
Social 46

I'm walking through things right now, but every once in a while one of the crazed scientists or other guys will get a hold of me and I'm done after like three hits. That's fine though, it makes me get up from the computer for a while.

My main gripe so far isn't the combat heavy aspect of the game, it's the utter lack of need for intellect beyond some of the challenges in the adventures. I took the inventor archetype for a reason....is there one, really?

My road block is that I have only one NPC ally, and she is my money generator who I prefer no to be in combat. So I'm sort of hosed cause of the way the game doesn't let you get back allies if your Social Standing is "too high"._________________"No man is so good as to be free from all evil,
nor so bad as to be worth nothing."

Speed factors into two things: Your ability to hit the enemy, and the enemy's ability to hit you. The max chance to hit is 95%. There is always a 5% chance of a critical failure.

When you are fighting, you have two options, ESCAPE, or FIGHT. Each has a "Chance of Success: XX%" above them. The % above the FIGHT button is your chance to hit the monster. The % above the ESCAPE button is your chance to avoid the monster's attack. You want BOTH of these numbers to be 95%. Again, 95% is the maximum...anything beyond that is a waste.

Conclusion: You should keep your Speed only high enough to have a 95% chance to avoid a monster's attack. Go Hunt, and if at any point, you find a monster where you don't have a 95% chance to avoid its attack, increase your speed. Otherwise, increase your Power and/or Damage.

My stats at level 25: Power 53, Courage 35, Intelligence 45, Speed 65 and Social Standing 38. (After I discovered how awesome player Allies were, I stopped increasing SS.) I have a 95% to hit and avoid being hit from every monster I fight while Hunting. I'm also able to do adventures without a problem, which results in fast and efficient XP. I bumped up my Speed only high enough to deal with the monsters I'm currently facing, then focused the rest on Power. Now that I kill everything in 1 or 2 attacks, I'm increasing my Courage.

My road block is that I have only one NPC ally, and she is my money generator who I prefer no to be in combat. So I'm sort of hosed cause of the way the game doesn't let you get back allies if your Social Standing is "too high".

Money generators don't need to be on your Team. They can just be in your Allies space. Try leaving any money-generating allies off your Team slots, and in your Ally Pool, and you should still see the same money-per-hour (in X minutes) notice on the left-hand side._________________

Money generators don't need to be on your Team. They can just be in your Allies space. Try leaving any money-generating allies off your Team slots, and in your Ally Pool, and you should still see the same money-per-hour (in X minutes) notice on the left-hand side.

You're 100% correct, but now I have no allies I can sack to the nasty monsters when they are difficult/impossible to fend off._________________"No man is so good as to be free from all evil,
nor so bad as to be worth nothing."

Rank 9 and speed is 30 (modified). I hit everything very well. I expect this trend to continue. Since I'm seeing that I'm higher than most people way above me, I think it's safe to assume this is true.
But 70. MAN! Power isn't supposed to be the dump stat :-p

I had the opposite reaction...up until about Rank 15 I was fighting for my life, and a combination of lotsa money for weapons and ingredients, and some really good friends have me careening along now._________________Tommy Brownell

In subsequent rounds, I attack with Melee Weapons only; the Power and Damage From Allies bonus stays the same. Thus, it appears that damage bonuses from Ranged Weapons are almost negligible in the big scheme of things at higher levels (since it takes several rounds for me to defeat an opponent, and damage caused by the weapons themselves is very small compared to my Power and Damage From Allies).

I tend to stock up on firearms for the first round of combat and then I change my gear to melee weapons for the rest of the combat (thereby boosting my damage and power). Seems to have worked very well so far - until I critically fail _________________Conan by Monolith Board Games LLC
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/806316071/conan

Power isn't the dump stat, Int is. If you invite other players, you will eventually get a few who are sharing some very high Int-bonus items. I'm Rank 30, and I have roughly 37 Int, solely from a +15 Int bonus from an ally. I can go through every adventure available to me with no problem, and if I just want to hunt, that ally can become something else.

Speed is #1, and I would rate Courage and Power as tied for #2. More Courage = More Hearts. However, more Power = less attacks you have to make to kill a monster = less chances to critically fail per monster. So it's a trade-off.

You're 100% correct, but now I have no allies I can sack to the nasty monsters when they are difficult/impossible to fend off.

Ah, sorry, I totally misunderstood the problem. Actually, I've gotten to a similar point where my Team roster is filled entirely with Friend Allies, because the bonuses are so much better anyway. Generally, I only Hunt when I'm at full Health, I have my Speed pretty much as high as I can manage, and when I go into combat, I look at the "Fight" and "Escape." Ideally, Fight will be at 95% chance success. If Escape is less than 95% then odds are I'm not going to survive the fight, and I just go ahead and try to Escape, with the hope that I can take one hit - and if I'm lucky and get away without any trouble, I can go to another Hunt and hope I get a more reasonable opponent.

The trouble is, damage from one hit at my level is up to 80 damage or so. I have a Lodge Upgrade that lets me recover +2 Health per 2 minutes, so that translates into 80 minutes of waiting anyway to recover that lost health. If I didn't have that Upgrade, it'd be 160 minutes ... and by the time I got all that Health back, the Wound penalty would wear off anyway (2 hours). It's not like this is the sort of game to be played continuously anyway.

I've pretty much stopped increasing Courage at this point because I've been routinely losing Heart anyway (to the tune of 6 points per initial scare from the enemy, and 6 points per Critical Fail), but the odds are that I'll take a hit from an enemy scoring a Critical Hit (or I run into a really tough one who has better odds of hitting me before I can run away) before I run out of Heart. Having more Heart points just means that I could theoretically run longer (assuming I don't take any hits to Health) before having to stop and let my character recover._________________

i wish lower status allies weren't forever lost to us if we sack them. but there's also a cap on how many allies you can recruit at all, and i haven't hit that cap yet, so my opinion may change over time.

once i figured out that wounds only take a couple hours to heal up, i started taking all the hits. i occasionally have to eat, tend to the children, talk to the wife, get some work done, and sleep. taking a wound is sometimes a welcome reminder.

Increasing my Speed (with the help of some luvverly allies with Speed enhancement items ) has helped a lot. Rippertech has also helped a little....

Currently at Rank 24 and things seem more normal with a decent win-loss ratio. However, I am sitting at the desk pulling my hair out at the moment..... I've been happily creating Rippertech with all my gear-ingredients..... and its only now I realise that all the stuff I created wasn't kept because I haven't got enough Rippertech Inventory slots..... gnnnnnnnnnnn........... how many ingredients have I wasted AAAAARRRGGGHHHH _________________100% Irons!!!!
Savage Explorer of the Tropics